Which The Empress Character Are You?

Learn More About The Empress

The Empress (Die Kaiserin) is Netflix’s lavish German-language period drama about Elisabeth of Austria, the free-spirited Bavarian duchess better known to history as Sisi. Created by Katharina Eyssen, the series first premiered in 2022 and quickly became one of Netflix’s most-watched non-English shows, landing in the global Top 10 in dozens of countries. Its third and final season arrives on Netflix on November 12, 2026.

The story begins when a teenage Elisabeth travels to Bad Ischl with her mother and older sister Helene, who is supposed to become the bride of the young Emperor Franz Joseph. Instead, Franz Joseph falls for Elisabeth, and she is swept into the rigid, whispering world of the Viennese court — a place where every gesture is watched and every alliance has a price.

Devrim Lingnau stars as Elisabeth, opposite Philip Froissant as Franz Joseph. Melika Foroutan plays Archduchess Sophie, Franz Joseph’s formidable mother and Elisabeth’s aunt-turned-mother-in-law, who has spent her life steering the empire from just behind the throne. Johannes Nussbaum plays Archduke Maximilian, the emperor’s charming, ambitious younger brother, whose hunger for a crown of his own drives much of the palace intrigue.

Season 2 widened the world beyond Vienna, bringing in Princess Charlotte of Belgium as Maximilian’s new wife, Napoleon III, and the brutal realities of the war in Italy, while Elisabeth fought to raise her own children and claim a voice in politics. The final season pushes the marriage of Elisabeth and Franz Joseph to its breaking point and introduces Dejan Bućin as Count Andrássy, the charismatic Hungarian revolutionary whose bond with Elisabeth helps shape the future of the empire.

Like the real Sisi, the series’ Elisabeth is restless, sharp and impossible to fully control — an athlete, a horsewoman, a reader of poetry and a woman who refuses to shrink to fit the role she was given. That tension between personal freedom and public duty runs through every character, from the dutiful emperor to the scheming archduke, which is exactly what makes the cast so fun to sort yourself into.

The show takes plenty of creative liberties with history, but the broad strokes are real: Elisabeth’s love of Hungary, her struggles with her mother-in-law, Maximilian’s ill-fated ambitions and the slow fracturing of an old empire. Fans of costume drama will find a lot to love here, alongside the romance and backstabbing of Bridgerton and the royal power struggles of The Crown.

If you love palace intrigue, try our The Remarried Empress character quiz, step into high society with our Gilded Age quiz, or travel back in time with our Outlander quiz.